


Fingerprints on the Heart

by Iunia (starfireone3)



Category: In the Heights - Miranda
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-11-11
Updated: 2011-11-11
Packaged: 2017-10-25 22:32:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/275565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starfireone3/pseuds/Iunia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of connected drabbles charting Sonny and Pete's relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Understanding

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my Beta Spikeissexy over at fanfiction.net

Sonny understands that Graffiti Pete’s tough guy persona is half an act. You can’t grow up in the barrio without getting a thick skin but, Pete is an artist at heart and while he may seem a little gruff and thuggish on the outside, he’s really quite sensitive––not that he’d ever admit it.

Graffiti Pete understands that Sonny would be a completely different person if he didn’t have Usnavi; without him, he wouldn't go to school and he'd have no place to go when Usnavi wasn't there. Graffiti Pete can tell that Sonny knows this, but doesn't know how to say thank you. So, instead he does things like attempt to guard the store during a riot.

As Pete helps Sonny with one of his murals, their fingers touch. In that instant, they both understand, even if they'd rather not.


	4. Okay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Usnavi is not blind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my beta Spikeissexy.

Usnavi is not blind, contrary to popular belief. He doesn’t need the hints that Vanessa is dropping to know what is going on. It’s plain as day on Sonny’s face when someone mentions Graffiti Pete’s name. It’s the blush Graffiti Pete gets whenever Sonny walks into a room. No, Usnavi is definitely not blind. It’s been obvious to him since before Sonny walked in with a self-satisfied grin on his face and multi-colored fingerprints on his ass. Really, it’s been obvious since Sonny started locking his door when Graffiti Pete came over. It’s been nagging at the back of Usnavi’s head since Sonny came home from helping Pete with one of those murals, looking a few years older and refusing to meet his eyes. Usnavi, kind of thinks that everyone else is blind, because he knows that if anyone else could see what he sees they would have told the whole barrio by now.

Usnavi is not blind, but he’s never been good with words. So, I know, I don’t understand but if you’re happy its okay, I’m always here for you and that’s not going to change, the words never pass his lips no matter how many times he’s tried. Instead, he waits for Sonny to tell him or for the thrill of being young and in love or infatuated or whatever to overpower logic and secrecy and paranoia so he can make things clear with a look or a nod or something that will let Sonny know everything is still okay.


	5. Knowing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They know things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my beta spikeissexy.

Sonny knows business. It comes from spending most of his formative years at the store. This is why Sonny spent all of his last paycheck on a digital camera. This is why Sonny spent three hours trying to photograph the grate in just the right way, messing with lighting, and all that stuff. Then Sonny went around and photographed all the grates in the neighborhood that Pete had painted.

Pete knows Sonny. It comes from hanging around the store, trying to hang out with Sonny in his formative years. It comes from hanging out with Sonny as close to 24/7 as possible, now. So when Sonny shows up on Pete’s stoop with a portfolio and two day passes for the Subway, Pete doesn’t even ask he just goes.

Sonny knows Pete. It comes from years of watching Pete through the store glass windows and seeing his work sprayed on crumbling red brick. So, when a store owner offers Pete a thousand dollars to paint his grate and Pete looks gob smacked, Sonny just smiles and asks for more.


	6. One Word

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Words have power and sometimes that just sucks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to thank my beta spikeissexy.

The first time Sonny heard *that* word since Sonny and Pete became SonnyandPete, he froze. It was after school let out talking with some of the guys in the hallway talking about how all the girls were obsessed with some new made for TV musical that was intended for audiences around the age of eight years old. One of the guys started talking about one of the characters, he used that word and suddenly Sonny couldn’t breathe. He made a quick excuse about having an early shift at the store and made a hasty retreat; he didn’t take a full breath until he was inside the bodega.

***

Pete knows Sonny. He knows that with Sonny emotions are shared or else they spew out like a geyser or maybe a hurricane. So, when Sonny clings to him and cries he knows that this has been waiting all afternoon and is probably just the tip of the iceberg.

Pete knows Sonny. He knows that Sonny doesn’t get emotional about things for no reason; Sonny isn’t a girl. So, Pete wraps his arms around his boyfriend and holds him and when Sonny falls asleep, Pete doesn’t let go. He just falls asleep too.


	7. Smarter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pete sometimes wishes he were smarter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks as always to my beta spikeissexy.

Pete wishes he was smarter. Sonny goes to school regularly. Sonny knows math, understands business, and has all these political ideas; sometimes, Pete just can’t keep up. But then as he listens to Sonny gush or rant or rave about whatever it is this time Pete sees how Sonny’s eyes light up and realizes that if there ever was a course that Pete really wanted to ace, it’d be about Sonny: the way Sonny laughs, smiles, the rhythm when he speaks, how he tries not to get upset over things but then explodes if he doesn’t get the emotion out. And Pete doesn’t need to be anything more than he is for that.


	8. Babysitting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sonny was her charge, so, of course, Nina notices things about him. It used to be her job, and even though she's not getting paid anymore it still sort of is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to SiriusLovesRent for the prompt of Nina finding out about Pete and Sonny and what her reaction would have been. Thanks to my beta Spikeissexy.

Nina has always watched; she watched the other children play from the fire escape; she watched the younger children of her parents' friends for extra cash. It’s no surprise then that Nina is so observant. When she comes home for Christmas, she observes the changes that have happened since she left: the spread of murals, how people look more confident, and more secure now.

One of the most interesting changes is Sonny, he no longer looks at her with awed admiration and hero worship, there is affection in his gaze but nothing more. Sonny has grown up, at least a little bit. And Nina is so used to being observant (if she couldn’t always be right at Stanford at least she could be that), she wants so much to know what happened, what caused this change. Then one day as she stands in the bodega listening fondly to Benny and Usnavi relate a recent adventure she sees it, over Usnavi’s shoulder: Graffiti Pete soda in hand coming down the chip aisle where Sonny is restocking, stopping with a grin and hand gently placed on Sonny’s arm, they share a few words and Nina can see the light in Sonny’s eyes all the way from where she’s standing, then Graffiti Pete is continuing to walk down the aisle, coming up to the cash register, no chips in hand, no reason for him to have gone down the aisle where Sonny was stocking. At first Nina doesn’t know what to think. She’s seen this sort of thing at Stanford but she never expected it in the barrio.

She’s always cared for Sonny, ever since he was a cute, bouncy little kid, getting into things he shouldn’t have been in, covered in paint or chocolate or glue and pieces of construction paper; she’ll always care for Sonny — he was her charge, he still is like a little brother to her. Nina is happy that Sonny is happy, but other than that she just doesn’t know what to think.


	9. Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pete didn't plan for this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Itsdelovely (Woot! Woot! Go Cole Porter!) who gave me the prompt love. Thanks to my beta Spikeissexy.

Graffiti Pete never planned on falling in love. He’s known who he is for awhile and he always new that it would be easier to just be a bachelor all of his life. He never thought about how easy falling in love could be; now he’s just in love, but he’s scared. Scared that Sonny doesn’t feel the same way, scared of what his strict Catholic mother will say, what his siblings will say, scared of how people will look at him once they know. But Pete is in love so while all of that matters he’s not going to stop. There is no way that he could be paralyzed by his fear when Sonny makes him feel like _this_.


	10. Caught, 2 AM

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Usnavi sees something he wasn't expecting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the prompts from Itsdelovely and SiriusLovesRent (2AM and Caught). Thanks to my beta Spikeissexy.

Usnavi wanted to gouge his eyes out. One of Vanessa’s friends was having a crisis and Usnavi thought it would be better if he left. He didn’t expect Sonny to be up at two am and he definitely didn’t expect Sonny and Pete to be on the couch at two am doing...things. Usnavi’s only consolation was that they were probably just as embarrassed as he was.


	11. Prom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sonny wants to go to prom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks as always to my Beta Spike is Sexy.

Sonny’s brain hurts. It hurts because he wants to go to prom. He knows he can’t go with Pete, that would be beyond idiocy, but he doesn’t want to ask some girl out and give her the wrong idea. Going stag is completely out of the question; a guy going to the prom alone is just plain sad. Sonny wants to go to prom, but the situation makes it impossible.

So, he goes online to see if anyone out there has the same problem, he searches two words and suddenly he has an alternative, if not a solution and his brain hurts a little less.


	12. Prom Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sonny and Pete go to a prom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my beta Spikeissexy. And to all of the lovelies who review and keep me writing this.

Usnavi was pretty shocked when he saw Sonny in black slacks, pristine sneakers, and a collared shirt (untuckedness, and tielessness not with standing) blazer held almost carelessly in his arm.

“Going somewhere?” Sonny nodded and tried to hide the fact that he was blushing.

“There’s this dance,” Sonny shifted his weight from his left foot to his right, “For kids who wont be taking their significant other to prom. It’s an alternative prom. Pete and I are going.”

Usnavi was about to respond when there was a knock at the door and Sonny was off.

Usnavi caught a glimpse of Pete at the door and Sonny’s grin. He managed to get out, “Have fun and be careful,” before the door was closed.


	13. Prom Night 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the dance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to Spikeissexy.

The dance floor is a press of music and people and laughter. It isn't exactly the best place to make introductions. Pete's me the welcome wagon Adelina, a Dominican and Haitian girl from Harlem, and Jessica is, a bubbly blond already trying to get them all to do dances from the fifties and sixties to contemporary music (Pete really can't get his head around the point of that), but the stream of names and descriptions of the people around them seem to swarm in his head and he's grateful for Sonny who is enough of a people person for both of them.

"I'll introduce you again, when it's more calm," Adelina laughs as she sees Pete start to flounder. Sonny has noticed as well and is threading his fingers through Pete's and giving Pete's hand a squeeze. Pete sighs and smiles nervously at his boyfriend. Sonny gives him a kiss on the cheek and they both flushed red.

The music coming over the speakers switches from beat centric to something that starts with a rumbling guitar. A silent cheer seems to go through the dancers and almost everyone starts to jump, those that were jumping, begin to jump with more enthusiasm. The few people that seemed staunchily anti-dance are even bobbing their heads with the beat, in an instantaneous change. Sonny and Pete look around at a complete loss.

"You don't know 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'?" Jessica asks, obviously shocked.

Sonny and Pete look at her blankly.

Adelina rolls her eyes, "They're not white." She turns to the boys. "Just jump, or thrash, or mosh, or whatever," she has grabbed a handful of her gold, satin, ruched, sheath of a dress so it's up about her knees on one side and trying to slide down to her ankles on the other. With her free hand she grabs Jessica's and the two are jumping higher than Pete has ever seen girls in heels jump. "It's cathartic!" Adelina screams over the screaming music, "Let Go!"

Sonny and Pete look at each other shrug and they are off on the high of the music mixed with the energy of throwing one's limbs about wildly mixed with energy of being in a crowd of people screaming with every pore in their being if not with their bodies. And they've let go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I take prompts. I especially like prompts that are one or two words and they help with writers block. So give me a gift of a review and prompt, please. :)


End file.
